Chamber and committees

Following careful consideration of the views expressed by stakeholders in response to my letter about the future of police complaints handling, I remain of the view that the principle set out in the Sinclair Recommendations on simplifying public service complaints handling stands and that it would be appropriate to move the functions of the Police Complaints Commissioner for Scotland (PCCS) to the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman (SPSO).

I have therefore instructed officials to set up a short-life working group with officials from the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body, the PCCS and the SPSO to identify and consider solutions to all the practical issues involved in a transfer, so that advice on this can be given to the next administration.

I have written to policing stakeholders, including the Justice Committee, and to other respondents to my original letter, in those terms.

I have asked John Ewing, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service, to respond. His response is as follows:

The Scottish Prison Service does not separately record the cost of drug testing prisoners on reception to prison.

Drug testing in prison is carried out extensively to support clinical prescribing, progression through a sentence, risk management and to identify incidence and prevalence of drug use. The following table provides the expenditure on drug testing per establishment over the last three years on all types of testing that is highlighted in the Drug Misuse Statistics Scotland report published annually by the Scottish Government. Significant reductions in costs have been made possible by increased use of in-house testing kits.

Establishment	Expenditure 2007-08	Expenditure 2008-09	Expenditure 2009-10
Addiewell1	N/A	£2,324	£4,722
Kilmarnock	£20,880	£18,159	£13,177
Aberdeen	£3,908.42	£7,369.66	£3,040.26
Barlinnie	£11,113.39	£16,042.85	£12,761.86
Cornton Vale	£20,030.74	£12,611.02	£11,275.87
Dumfries	£1,885.04	£1,737.90	£1,364.91
Edinburgh	£26,450.06	£21,113.91	£19,699.23
Glenochil	£24,248.65	£20,547.56	£14,916.48
Greenock	£7,885.62	£8,980.20	£9,830.47
Inverness	£2,583.62	£2,009.74	£1,968.99
Open Estate	£20,700.21	£15,072.86	£18,580.79
Perth	£13,262.15	£19,497.40	£16,027.52
Peterhead	£3,250.47	£2,927.00	£1,730.63
Polmont	£8,058.79	£9,837.04	£977.76
Shotts	£33,174.09	£41,327.47	£22,988.41

Note: 1. HMP Addiewell opened in December 2008 and carries out most of its drug testing in house. The only chargeable costs are those tests for Prisoner Progression and Parole.

I have asked John Ewing, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service, to respond. His response is as follows:

The information relating to drug testing in prison is published annually in Drug Misuse Statistics Scotland by Information Statistics Division of the Scottish Government. The report can be accessed at:

http://www.drugmisuse.isdscotland.org/publications/abstracts/ISDbull.htm.

The Scottish Government has regular discussions with Scottish Water regarding odours from Wastewater Treatment Works and some odour improvements have already been delivered at Kelso. The government understands that Scottish Water is agreeing an Odour Improvement Plan with Scottish Borders Council that will inform any future investment needs. Scottish Water will continue to keep local residents informed of its plans.

The information requested is not held centrally. Annual figures for electricity demand and generation by renewables in Scotland are published on the Scottish Government website at:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Environment/seso/Q/TID/18.

In 2009, the most recent year for which statistics are held, wind and wave power generated the equivalent of 11.6% of Scotland''s gross electricity consumption. This represents an increase of 3.5 percentage points from 2008, where wind and wave power alone was equivalent to 8.15% of Scotland''s gross electricity consumption.

Following extensive discussion with the Scottish Fisheries Council, the Scottish Government has adopted a four pillar plan designed to support the fishing industry across Scotland. The aim, in Eyemouth as elsewhere, is to enable Scottish fishermen to weather current challenges and ensure their industry''s future viability.

Of course, just this week we have also concluded the annual autumn negotiations in Brussels, in which I secured the best possible deal available to Scotland within the current, broken, Common Fisheries Policy framework.

The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service is currently monitoring the impact of the decision in HMA v Cadder.

There were 3,471 cases in which the absence of access to a solicitor prior to interview at a police station had been raised at the date of the decision. An initial estimate indicated that 120 solemn cases were likely to be challenged. Cases are currently being reviewed, with priority being given to solemn cases, and where appropriate further enquiries are being conducted to ascertain if there are other sources of evidence that may provide a sufficiency of evidence. The Crown intends to publish statistics on the impact of the judgment at the conclusion of this review process in early 2011.

Low-level offenders sentenced to unpaid work all around those areas of Scotland affected by the recent adverse weather conditions have been working hard as part of the clear-up efforts. Information is being placed within the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number 52182) today which shows the numbers of those on community service that have been undertaking this work. It shows that offenders have carried out 14,949 hours of work between 25 November 2010 and 8 December 2010.

Since May 2007 the Scottish Government has consented 19 wind farms and rejected seven.

The information requested regarding parliamentary constituency is not held centrally.

I have taken the member''s question to cover all rehabilitation services listed in the Scottish Drug Services Directory. This information is not gathered or held centrally. Data on the numbers of people accessing these services on 21 July 2010 may be available from the individual service providers.

More generally, the Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that a range of treatment and support services is available locally to enable people to recover from their drug problem. We recognise that it is important to gather robust information on the number of people accessing treatment and that is why we are investing in the development of a follow-up reporting system for the Scottish Drugs Misuse Database. This system is currently being rolled-out across Scotland and will allow clients to be tracked through the treatment system and reveal more information on the number of individuals engaging with treatment provision at any given time.

In addition to this work, the Scottish Drugs Waiting Times Framework also provides information on the number of appointments for new clients offered per quarter in specialist substance-misuse treatment services.

For the first two quarters of 2010 (1st January “ 30th June), there were 4,201 offers of appointment for structured preparatory intervention, 2,396 offers of appointment for prescribed drug treatment, 3,893 offers of appointment for community rehabilitation and 356 offers of appointment for residential rehabilitation made across Scotland. It should be noted that not all those offered an appointment may enter treatment and once they are being treated within a service, they may receive different interventions later that are not recorded in the waiting times system.

Within the Waiting Times Framework, community based interventions include a range of interventions that have the purpose of tackling the social and psychological problems faced by the client, for example, debt and benefit problems, relationship and family issues and employability. Residential detoxification/rehabilitation is defined as detoxification and/or rehabilitation that involves the client being admitted to a residential facility or hospital.